sandralist

Yup. I think saying "might" would have been more appropriate. Where I got the idea that you thought the children would be automatically interested in gelato and not other aspects of Florence was reading your post.

I am dumbfounded by the notion that children could not instantly grasp what an amazing feat of architecture and painting the Duomo is.

annhig

Where I got the idea that you thought the children would be automatically interested in gelato and not other aspects of Florence was reading your post. >>

quad erat demonstrandum. you seem determined to misinterpret everything I say. Why would an interest in gelato [a throwaway remark in any case as the context demonstrates] suggest a lack of interest in the other aspects of Florence?

how you think that this attitude to what others post assists the OP escapes me.

vincenzo32951

Wow. You won't catch me recommending any gelato places in Florence.

Jean

Especially to kids.

dugi_otok

I will risk the attack. My grandsons favorite gelato can be found at L'Antica Delizia in in Castellina in Chianti. Highly recommended.

http://www.anticadelizia.it/index.htm

adventures6

Thank you for the suggestions. My children are VERY excited about trying all the gelato they can get their hands on while in Italy. We know we have limited time in Florence and that is why we are considering another daytrip on the way to Naples.
We do have a reservation to see the David at the Accademia the first afternoon and we'd also love to get see the beautiful views from San Miniato. On our second day through we would like to visit the Dumo and even thought the Museo de Galileo and Leonardo Museum seem great for the kids. We are truly excited for our trip. Thank you for all the help.

MonicaRichards

adventures6, we made it our personal challenge to have gelato on every single day of our Italy trip. We only missed one day due to having panna cotta for desert after dinner instead. Do you think YOUR kids are up for the challenge?

annhig

Well I'm glad that I'm not the only person who thinks that you can feed the mind AND the body even with gelato.

only one a day, Monica? mind you, with the prices in the main tourist areas, gelato can eat into your budget. When I was staying in rural Tuscany a few years ago, the local paper was full of the record price paid by two german tourists for an ice-cream in Florence - €17.50. Mind you it was a magnificent creation with nuts, whipped cream, and I don't know how many scoops. consequently I was full of trepidation that I wouldn't be able to afford any gelato in Florence when I got there but it's much cheaper away from the hoards, and on one occasion I paid €1.50 for 2 scoops. so it needn't break the budget if you are prepared to shop around and walk away from the main drag a little.

adventures - your plans for Florence seem great. Good idea to book the Accademia tickets. the queue to climb the Dome of the Duomo seems to start early so if you are interested, it would be a good place to start on day two and then see what takes your fancy.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

MonicaRichards

@annhig, I think only one a day? But there was a few days where those frozen fruit ice lolly things were in there too or chocolate. Suffice to say despite all of the walking we did (averaging about 7.5 miles per day according to my Fitbit) I still managed to gain weight. Worth it though!

bvlenci

I would suggest that you not bother to go inside the Duomo, which has very little of interest to match the amazing outside. (By the way, the facade of the Duomo dates only to the 19th century.) The nearby baptistery, on the other hand, has some fantastic medieval golden mosaics.

The climb to the top of the dome is very interesting, especially if you've read something about the history of its construction, but I wouldn't undertake it with young children. Besides, the queue to get in is usually interminable in the summer.

If you want your children to have a painless introduction to Italian art, I suggest you stop at the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, right by the train station of the same name. It has many masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, including the splendid Tornabuoni Chapel, with frescoes by Il Ghirlandaio and his workshop. One of his young apprentices was named Michelangelo Buonarroti; you might have heard of him. It's thought that one of the figures on the frescoes was painted by the adolescent Michelangelo. The Basilica also has a nice cloister.

You yourself might want to visit the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica of Santa Maria Novella, which is the oldest pharmacy in Europe, originally founded by the monks in the monastery of S. Maria Novella. It's also thought to be the oldest business in continuous operation in Europe. It's known worldwide for its cosmetics, colognes and lotions. I never allow myself to run out of its Crema Fluida Relax, a body lotion that I use as a light face lotion that doesn't leave my skin feeling oily.

In Rome, everything that Sandrlist said about the Uffizi could be said about the Vatican Museums, and then some. If you could manage to visit on a Friday evening, it might be worth it, but I would never take a child there during the day, when all that he would see would be the backsides of the people in front of him. The place is packed with hot sweaty bodies in the summer, and there's almost no air conditioning. For that matter, no air conditioning on earth could cope with all the heat put out by the thousands of people crammed in like sardines.

Some of the best (uncrowded, inexpensive) museums in Rome are the Barberini Gallery (€9, free for kids under 18, with mostly Italian paintings, including many great masterpieces, from the late middle ages to the early modern period); Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (€7, free for kids under 18, with one of the world's greatest collection of ancient sculpture, Roman mosaics, jewelery, coins, household items, and rare wall paintings from the villa of Livia, the wife of Augustus); and the Villa Farnesina (€6, free or reduced entrance for kids, depending on age, a Renaissance villa in Trastevere, set in a lovely garden, with frescoes by Raphael). The Villa Farnesina closes at 2 PM and is closed on most Sundays, but it's one of the few museums open on Mondays. Trastevere is also a very pleasant neighborhood to wander around and have lunch or dinner.

There is also a Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Rome, and you'd have a little more time there to see it. My granddaughter enjoyed it, as did her grandparents, big kids that we are. In fact, my granddaughter (now 9) has enjoyed all of the places I've mentioned, and has requested return visits to the Villa Farnesina and Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.

In Rome, I also recommend taking the kids to the Villa Borghese Park, which can be reached by the steps from Piazza del Popolo, where the Leonardo da Vinci Museum is. There you can rent bicycle carts and zoom around the park. There are little carnival-style rides for the youngest, a puppet theatre, a lake with boats, and a zoo.

If you want to go to the Colosseum, go early and buy your tickets at the entrance to the Roman Forum or the Palatine Hill. The tickets are good for all three sites, although the Forum and Palatine count as a single site, so you can enter only once and walk from one to the other internally. The Palatine Hill is very pleasant and green, amidst the ruins of the Imperial Palace and other magnificent residences of ancient Rome. There are great views of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum from this hill. Sadly, most people rush to the Colosseum, rush back out and miss this lovely site. I wouldn't take any tours, because they last a minimum of two hours, and it could well be too hot to stay that long under the sun.

MonicaRichards

A good plan for the forum is to see Palantine Hill and then look out at the forum from the Capitoline Museum. You can see most of it from up high there and it was much cooler there in the shade with the breeze blowing! We also noticed how incredibly uncrowded the forum is in the evening, so that's another option for you.

annhig

to add to bvl's excellent list of less visited [and therefore less crowded] places to see in Rome, I'm going to add the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, [entrance on the Corso, just north of the Vittoriano Emmanuale Monument] which is part family home, with an excellent audio guide in the most cut-glass accent you'll ever hear, and part art gallery where densely hung portraits vie for attention with depictions of heaven, hell, and everything in between. IMO an excellent alternative to the Vatican museums, much more accessible for children, and blessedly uncrowded. And when I've been there, vey cool too.